Shirley wrote:
>Sukie, In Australia and the UK, at least, Bachelor of Veterinary
>Science (BVSc) is exactly the same as DVM and those people who hold
>it are certainly referred to as "Doctor".

and Sukie replied:

>Shirley, a bachelors degree is NOT AT ALL the same as a doctorate, it
>is the first step of moving toward trying to qualify to do later work
>to get a doctorate.

While Sukie's research is usually impeccable, in this case I have to
back Shirley. The UK/ European system is quite a bit different from
the US system. There, the first professional degree in law or medicine
is also the first University degree.

Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Medicine_and_Surgery

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Medicine

It may help to remember we also have first university degrees that are
also professional degrees; a bachelor of engineering or architectual
degree in the US entitles you to call yourself an engineer or
architect.

In the US, an MD degree results from the initial professional training,
and the course of study is typically 4 years. When you graduate, you
are a doctor, even though you will need to do residencies and pass your
boards before you can get your license and hang out a shingle. When you
specialize, you may get a Masters in that specialty, but the important
thing is passing the boards. If you want to specialize in research
(which few MDs do), you can go on to earn a PhD in medicine. This, in
academia, is considered the "real" doctorate. (My sister is an MD/PhD).
Unfortunately, the layman's perception is exactly the reverse of this;
a layman is more apt to consider an MD a 'real' doctor, even though
academically the degree is closer to a Master's.

In Europe, exams taken as early as grade school may determine whether
you will enter med school. A student bound for medical school will take
the equivalent of their freshman science courses in high school. The
medical school curriculum then takes 5-6 years. The graduates emerge
with a Bachelor's in Medicine, which involves fully as much training
as an American MD degree.

American doctors who want to work in Europe are often dismayed to
find that their MD is not accepted as such. In most cases, the
European board of medicine rates an American MD as equivalent to their
Bachelor's in Medicine. One reason it is not accepted as an MD is that
there IS an MD degree in Europe, but it is a doctorate which involves
research and a thesis (more like a PhD here). To be accepted as a
European MD, an American doctor needs far more academic credentials
than most MDs here have.

Sukie is right in that we really need to check the credentials of
anyone we are taking as an authority. All the credentials, not just the
degrees; someone with a Masters in nutrition will have considerably
more knowledge of nutrition than an MD/surgeon. And we need to verify
the research; even those with good credentials can state their research
results in such a way that it can be misinterpreted.

-Claire

[Posted in FML 5632]